First impressions: CF27 & MS Streets & Trips '07

I had been watching the GPS/navigation discussions from the sidelines all this time. It was one of those things that looked interesting, but I just never got around to trying. My dad is a cab driver and a few weeks ago he started talking about how some of the other cabbies were generating maps from a notebook right inside the cab. I figured this might be a good excuse to try out navigation s/w and see about setting him up with a toughbook w/ GPS in the cab.

I figured the right platform for this experiment would be a CF27LB. a 500 MHz P3 seems like it should be fast enough, and staying with a CF27 keeps the cost down. I further decided that I'd put W2K on it, thinking that there'd be less overhead than with XP, letting the nav. s/w run a little faster. plus, I had a W2K CF27LB image ready to go

I remembered reading here that despite being written by MS, Streets & Trips was actually a decent product. I had my doubts, but figured it was worth a try. The 2007 version, which is the last not to require you to perform a Genuine Extortion online "activation", can be had for under $40 on ebay, bundled with a USB GPS receiver that scored pretty high marks on several review sites.

I loaded the DVD, gathered the appropriate drivers to make it work with W2K, and started it up. It showed me a map of the whole U.S. Ok, no problem, I need to let it know about this GPS thingie so it can figure out where I'm at. The configuration was pretty straightforward and now it zeroed in on my location. (yay!) So now I'm thinking this is pretty cool.. There a place for you to enter an address, so I threw one in to see what it would do. To my way of thinking, it should tell you how to get there from here, right? Wrong.. Instead, it changes the "focus" of the map from your present location to the one you just entered. So let me back up.. maybe I can just type "here" or "GPS" into that address box and get back to my present location. no, that doesn't work either. It seems that you have to type a discrete "from" address" and a discrete "to" address to generate a list of directions. That isn't very practical for a cab driver.. he'll just be driving around somewhere and get told an address to drive to! The GPS unit should handle determining his present location!

The next thing that annoys me is, whenever I launch the software, I just get that stupid USA map. It seems that it WILL NOT automatically look for a GPS signal and zero in on your present location. It *WILL* try to do it from WiFi access points it sees, but to me that doesn't seem like much good. What if you're somewhere that there's no nearby Wifi routers? (like probably 95% of the surface of the USA..) You should be able to get a GPS fix just about anywhere, why not use that?!?! Sure, you can pull down a menu and open up a dialog box and click here and there and it'll start reading the GPS sensor, but it seems completely boneheaded to me that a NAVIGATION software would not do this right from the get-go.

So anyway, I finally gave in and went to the route planner and gave it two separate addresses to make a map from. It kinda-sorta seemed to work, (albeit backwards), but on more than one occasion it locked up and the process had to be terminated. Seems that whatever it's doing, it pegs the CPU at 100% usage and freezes. I think I've given it a fast enough CPU (PIII-500) and enough RAM (320MB), if it can't make a map with that then I think it must be a poorly written software package.

Anyway, let me know what you guys think. I know I have only scratched the surface of the capabilities of this program, but I'm deliberately cutting my learning short. I figure that if I can't figure out how to go from HERE (wherever that happens to be) to some address after 1/2 hour or so of playing around with it, then someone in their mid-70s that is NOT computer literate would never figure it out. I want to give him Mapquest.com-type functionality, with the added benefit of tracking one's progress with a GPS antenna. I don't want the bells-and-whistles, I don't want it to find me a campsite or a starbucks, just a simple automated map. Am I asking too much?

 

This is a little off topic but I'm curious...is it actually legal for the driver to operate a laptop in a moving vehicle in Michigan? It might not be, despite the fact that other cabbies might be doing it. Seems like something you might want to look into anyway.

My second question would be if using a laptop plus Streets is really a good solution for anyone. Seems like a $200 basic GPS would be way easier and more reliable and a $300-$400 dedicated GPS that can receive traffic updates without any wifi being necessary would be the best solution.

The solution you are talking about would be a great one for a travelling salesman with a lot of visits to make, but doesn't seem to be the best for a cabbie, especially if the law is not happy about people using laptops in a moving vehicle.

 

Well i know nothing about MS Streets and Trips and now after hearing that i am glad.

I use Delorme 2008 and it will start the GPS when the program runs and then center on the GPS location automatic.

Next it does have the option to select start from GPS location to whatever address you type in which is much better for a cabbie.

I would reccomend getting delorme 2008. I picked it up on ebay for $20 and love it so far.

There are so many options on it i have not had time to figure them all out yet.


But honestly if he is only ever gonna do mapping then why not just get a GPS unit and forget the laptop all together. I mean they are pretty simple now and around 300-400 bucks like cjcerny said.

But since you already have the cf-27 then might as well use it. Right?

-James

 

maybe I'm just incredibly bone-headed and overlooked something obvious. but it looked like it had no option to start using the GPS signal without having to manually configure it to do so.

I'll take a look at Delorme. For another $20, it would be worth a try!

I'm using a Toughbook mainly because I've got plenty on-hand to use. If he doesn't like it, its already paid for, and I can always do something else with it. If I drop $300-400 on a handheld unit, now I'm stuck with it or hoping to sell it and recover my expense.

I do imagine that the toughbook would be a little more durable than a consumer-grade handheld device anyway. He's pretty rough on the stuff he keeps with him in the cab!

 

I use S&T occasionally when traveling for work and would generally agree with your assessment of it's shortcomings. There are probably a ton of more elegant solutions for finding your way around.

How it works for me goes something like this: I'm going to East Nowhere, OH (...sorry Ohioans, but I had to pick someplace.). I plan the trip from the airport to the meeting or whatever before I leave. When I get there I toss my laptop in the rental car, fire up S&T and launch my saved trip. Enable the GPS tracking and we're off. I don't need to carry another GPS device since one of my products uses the MapPoint control anyway.

FWIW... it runs just fine on my CF-73

 

Grav, I don't recall what version I have, but it's the latest. When I want to be guided somewhere I just type in the "To" address and hit f3 which brings up the driving directions and turn-by-turn voice navigation. For the money, I not disappointed with it at all. I don't know if my version will "Start on GPS" or not but I do know that when I turn GPS on, a pop-up box appears warning you of driving and using GPS at the same time... basically, keep your eyes on the road dummy! It seems to be accurate for me to within like 30 feet.

 

Here is my .02 cents. I have been a Garmin user for a very long time. I have a pretty high end unit that I have been using for about 2 years with this model. After I purchased my CF-30, which is 99% kept in my vehicle dock, I wanted to try out some PC based GPS software. I tested the S&T for about 2 weeks. Long story short, I returned it. Alot of reciever/antenna problems. I had used the Delorme in the past so I was familier with that brand.

I got the Garmin Mobile PC, which I have had for about 3 months now. It is so much user friendly, never fails to lock on in less than 5 seconds, without any drops. It has tons of options, free Garmin online which gives you current gas prices where you are at, weather for current location or wherever you want, flight info on all airlines, hotel rates as well.

Garmin is the GPS leader for a reason, they just know how to do it right.

In regards to the legality of use in a vehicle, a couple of states have it in the law that you cannot use a computer for watching any type of TV use. There are thousands of companies that outfit there vehicles with laptops. With the ToughBook being the leader.

 

Morning!

I've got the Garmin 18, puck style GPS unit and their StreetMaps running on both a CF-27 300 mhz, and a CF-M34 400 Mhz machine.... They both work well.. They start up from the GPS location, allow you to have a "list" of routes to, etc.. Voice turn by turn, and good maps along with resturants, buisnesses, etc available to you the user...

Been running it for about a yr now.. Mostly the M34 in the car...Even with the slow porcessor I've not been able to "out drive" it..The software will work with just about anyones GPS unit...

Hope this helps..

73
Semper Fi
Ed

 

Grav.
I just used S&T 2008 to get me around 6800 miles of the west and it worked pretty much like a charm. I pre-plan all my routes so I haven't used a "go-to" function much. If you open the GPS Pane you will see a "route to from current location" window at the bottom. I have never tried to get the GPS to start up automatically as I use Franson Gate to run multiple mapping programs at once and don't want the GPS com port grabbed by anything but Franson. The advantage to using a laptop in my opinion is it has a screen you can actually see! The tiny Tom-Tom and Garmin screens have me craning my neck to se them, my Panasonic remote display lets me see everything with just a glance from my normal driving position.
Cap

 

Well, thanks to your tips, it's working. I really appreciate all your ideas. Now I'll shop for some useful software and have a functional 29!

Rob

 

Just to help us out, what did you end up doing to get it running?